Breadcrumb

Sleep Deprivation

I called the Valais Cantonal police to report a suicide around 18:15 on April 28, 2015.

They held me prisoner in my own home until midnight, when they carted me off to an interrogation room in the basement of Martigny police station.

I had asked for a lawyer much earlier, but they refused my request, along with drinking water and access to a toilet. Why did they do that?

To drag my interrogation out, into the next morning. To wear me down, hoping I'd slip up and they would have a pretext to hold me further.

I knew what was happening, and I tried desperately not to slip. In fact I didn't slip up once. So the Swiss police just made something up out of thin air. Problem solved!

By the time I saw my lawyer it was about 02:00, although we didn't speak for long. Maitre Fumeaux said I had no choice but to do whatever the police said, because once my deposition was over, he had to leave, and the cops had me for the next 48h, and nobody, not even God, could intervene.

So, my first forced medical exam. They brought in a woman, then I was stripped, photographed, and she took 6 samples off the end of my penis.

Then the interrogation session started for real, and finished about 05:30.

So by the time they took me to Martigny hospital, for a second medical exam, I got to prison at 06:30.

I had to fill out forms, then the warden said "It's the middle of the night and we put people like you in these special cells. We don't want to wake the other prisons up, so we put you here. Sorry it's so cold".

There was a breeze blowing through, and this is Switzerland, it was a cold breeze. Incredibly I had to ask three times and insist to get a blanket. The police didn't want me to sleep at all. And I didn't.

They have some nerve pretending to care about the inmates, unless they mean about making them suffer as much as possible.

At 07:30 the police came to take me to the hospital in Sion. So, I was handcuffed and carted away for my third medical exam. Couldn't they do this all at once?

No, because it's designed to break you down, to give in, plead guilty under duress to make them stop.

After finishing up at the hospital, I was taken for a mug shot and finger printing at the motor registry of all places. By now they had confiscated all my clothing, and I was in a pair of light cotton trousers and a t-shirt. They gave me a kind of open plastic slippers to walk in, which were too big or small; I don't recall. Here I was, an early Spring morning in the ski fields, with no socks, underwear, jumper or jacket. I had transcended feeling cold; I was a walking block of ice.

I got back to prison about 11:00am, just in time for the daily hour in the exercise yard (balade). I was actually relieved to be somewhere slightly warmer due to my lack of suitable clothing. The prison guards tried to force me to go outside, but since I was virtually naked, I refused. I tried to sleep, but I was so tired it wasn't actually sleep that I had.

The guards kept coming back to check on me, and each time they did that, they would knock loudly at the door, turn on the lights, ask me questions, then go away again. Finally they brought food. Then, they asked for my mobile phone password.

I said I couldn't remember it. Half an hour later they were back to say "we are putting you in a different cell". I am asthmatic and they put me in a cell with a smoker. You see how these savages operate?

I satisfied myself by knowing I would one day take revenge upon this wretched racist country called Switzerland.